The Open Door by: Ann Pilcher-Dayton
The sub-title to this book is The History of the Order of Women Freemasons 1908 – 2008 and it’s been published to coincide with the Centenary of the Order. In fact, more than five thousand members and guests, gathered for a special, celebratory meeting at London’s Royal Albert Hall, in June. The author, is the Order’s Grand Registrar and Librarian and she states in her Preface: “This book is not intended to be a critical history of the Order of Women Freemasons but it is hoped that it is as objective as possible.
The Open Door was written for members of the Order and interested outsiders. It therefore assumes some knowledge of Freemasonry, which is readily found in this information age.” The book outlines how it all began, with Freemasonry for women, first entering this country from France in 1902, as mixed lodges of men and women, or Co-Masonry. Six years later, there was a split amongst the Brethren, with some Co-Masons objecting to being controlled by the French, so they went to found a new Order for themselves. Those who remained, formed The Honourable Fraternity of Antient Masonry, on 20th June 1908, with its first Grand Master, the Rev. Dr William Frederick Cobb. Since 1912 though, the Grand Masters have all been women, the first, from 1912 to 1927, being Marion Lindsay Halsey, who was married to the younger son of Sir Thomas Halsey, Baronet and Deputy Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England, at that time.
The new Order at first, included both men and women but in the 1920s, the decision was taken to restrict entry to women only and no longer admit men, as visitors. Some men remained in Office but by 1935, the Order had become an exclusively female organisation and remains so. The Order, is the oldest and largest masonic organisation for women in this country, with around six thousand members United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Spain and Zimbabwe. There was a split, back in 1913, with a group of women forming themselves into the Honourable Fraternity of Ancient Freemasonry. Because of possible confusion, in 1958, the words “Order of Women Freemasons” were added to the title. In 1924, a member gave the freehold of 27 Pembridge Gardens, in London’s Notting Hill, as a permanent home and headquarters for the Order.
Inside this listed building, is a Grand Temple and a smaller Temple. Probably, the most interesting parts of the book, concerns the reaction of United Grand Lodge, to the news that some of their members were attending meetings of the new Order and the subsequent Appeal and Petition, nine years later. In March 1910, UGLE issued a directive to all lodges, forbidding such visits and threatening sanctions, if members disobeyed. A confirmation of the ban was made in 1919, when a Petition was drawn up to be presented to United Grand Lodge. The reply, did not come until February 1921, in a letter from Philip Colville Smith, the then Grand Secretary of UGLE, in which he states that the Board “will continue to exercise its disciplinary powers towards any member working under the English Jurisdiction who violates his obligation by being present at or assisting in assemblies professing to be Masonic, which are attended by women.” So that was that and it remains the same. This book is extremely interesting and later chapters inform of the later developments, since the 1920s.
To compliment this book, there is also an exhibition about the Order, currently on at Freemasons’ Hall, in London, entitled: Women and Freemasonry: The Centenary, which is well worth a visit.
Purchase this title online at www.lewismasonic.com
